Mal Waldron and Steve Lacy in Antwerp

Mal Waldron, Steve Lacy, Reggie Workman, and Andrew Cyrille performing in Antwerp (from the booklet accompanying the album being discussed)

My final examination of a new album released in celebration of Record Store Day is The Mighty Warriors: Live in Antwerp. This is another quartet album led jointly by pianist Mal Waldron and Steve Lacy on soprano saxophone. Rhythm is provided by Reggie Workman on bass and drummer Andrew Cyrille. The album accounts for the entire performance, which took place at De Singel Arts Center in Antwerp (Belgium) on September 30, 1995. Like Atlantis Lullaby, which was discussed yesterday, the album consists of two CDs. The overall duration is 100 minutes (again including time set aside for applause).

Also like Atlantis Lullaby, the tracks tend to be generous in duration. Indeed, the shortest track is “Epistrophy,” which Thelonious Monk composed with Kenny Clarke in 1941. (I always get a bit of a chill when I am listening to adventurous jazz that is older than I am!) I suspect that this was deployed as a “punctuation mark” for the longer opening selection, which was Waldron’s “What It Is.” Waldron’s more extended contribution is a medley lasting a little less than 25 minutes, which couples his “Snake Out” with his “Variations on a Theme by Cecil Taylor.” I found it somewhat interesting that, over the course of the thirteen pages of text provided by the highly informative booklet, no one identified Taylor’s theme; but, to be fair, it is usually not an easy matter to extract the theme from one of the tracks on a Taylor album!

Lacy contributed only one of his own originals to this set, “Longing,” which is one of the moderately shorter offerings. The more impressive undertaking is Workman’s “Variation of III,” which is almost half an hour in duration. Once again, the booklet provides no clues about what that title is meant to convey. To be fair, however, I do not think that much is to be gained from trying to overthink the listening experience. Ever since The Wire, many of us have had a tendency to fall back on the assertion that “It is what it is;” but, where adventurously inventive jazz is concerned, I can think of no better advice for how to approach performances and improvisations.